No Promises
by Blair.64
Summary: Every year when the April wind blows and mingles with the scent of the flowers in his house, he remembers his last year at East Wood High. When he experienced an unexplainable sensation—Love. He still cherishes that feeling. He still loves her. He does. And will never forget her. Never ever.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello friends! I'm back with another story! Now this one is really close to my heart. This story is not my idea. It's based on a book by Nicolas Sparks (one of my favourite authors!)**

 **So, I don't owe this idea. This is just the reinterpretation of his ideas and the film based on this book.**

 **And a note for Elisha- Can you please tell me if something like stalking was written in sixth chapter of Crepuscular light? Please tell me if there is... I'm sorry for the inconvenience**

 **Please read. And I hope you enjoy!**

 **NO PROMISES**

 **Prologue**

 **Daya's POV**

It's April again. The same month which changed my life, 40 years back. When I met her. No doubt I'd known her for the past few years. That time, I got to know her better.

Whatever happens, happens for good.

Now I truly believe in this quote. If that accident hadn't happened, I would've never been in community service, and I would've never been in that play. And I would've never got to know her that much.

I love her, I still do.

I miss her, I still do.

Now you must be thinking who the hell am I taking about?

Well, I'll tell you about her. She was an angel, a saint. The best, kindest person I've ever seen.

Lemme take you into my time machine and into the year 1990, my last year at East Wood High. When I was 18. That year changed my life.

The person who I am today, is because of her. I love her.

I love her. And will never stop.

I promise I will tell you everything. Every single thing. I will not leave anything out.

I hope you will enjoy my story, her and mine.

 **So... how was it? Hope you liked it!**

 **Lemme know know your thoughts...**

 **Do review and I promise to update soon!**

 **Till then...**

 **Goodbye!**

 **Take care!**

 **Yours...**

 **Blair :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi guys! I'm back with chapter 1**

 **Hope you enjoy!**

 **NO PROMISES**

 **Chapter 1**

 **Year: 1990**

 **Daya's POV**

I searched for the key in my pocket. But couldn't find it. I became frustrated and quickly emptied all the contents of my pocket.

There, I thought, struck with the ribbons. I took it and quickly ran shouting "I'm going out, mom!"

I knew my mom wouldn't hear. She was asleep. After all, who would be awake at 2 in the morning?

Mom was sad. After dad left, us. I was just 5. Didn't really know the reason why he left since he is town right now. And the fact that he wanted himself to be a part of the family now.

Never.

Didn't he think about it when he was leaving us, 13 years ago?

Nah.

So anyways, as I figured out that he wasn't coming back, I, as a normal teenager, yearning for attention became a part of the popular group.

 _Yep_ , the popular. At East Wood High school, Beaufort, North Carolina.

And we all know what being a popular means. Jocks, leaders, girlfriends, parties, drinking, dirty joking, picking on the nerds, pranking etc..

I was in High School. High school. Senior year aka last year at the torture school and then ... COLLEGE.

So, today, I was doing pranking. On Josh Michael. New, charming, nerd (without spectacles), vulnerable, and... easy target.

I drove my latest Mercedes model into the River shaft driveway. Not like anyone was there to stop me.

I shut the door and went up to my gang. Yeah, gang, probably not even close to friends, except for Abhijeet.

Now, Abhijeet, or Abhi, as I call him, was a guy like me. Believe me, almost the same theory. Single mom, dad left when he was around 5, no one to give attention, joined the pack... and now... we all know. And he played basketball. Pretty well, after all, he was the captain.

So, it all happened like this. This new guy, Josh, barged in with a few bottles of beer on a Saturday night on Taylor's (gang member) birthday, on the school grounds, like people can see us at 3 in the morning drinking on school grounds.

Beer and us. No one can come in between. And so we lost control and drank 'em all up. And the return favour, guess what? He wants to join our gang.

And then, our genius Sean (member), thought of a plan. It was like shooting two birds with an arrow.

So, the plan in soemthing like this. We told Josh that he has to jump off in a river. Must be thinking, it's an easy task. Is not, prefebly not in the cold month of November.

It surprised me that a river actually had water in it during this time... as far as I know, all the rivers had been frozen. But, God bless this mighty river.

"Hi Daya!" Abhi greeted me as I joined the 'gang'. Like I said, the only friend.

"Hi dude!" I said and hugged him. "Josh here yet?"

"Nah," he said. "Can easily reject him if comes after 2:30,"

"Definitely!"

I made my way to the rest of the group.

There stood, Nick, Taylor, Sean, and Muskaan.

Now, lemme tell you something about them.

Nick Trouski, muscular, big, intense, smart... and... what else...? Senior, just like me. Had a few girlfriends in the past, but nothing serious.

Taylor Weatherly, East Wood High's Queen Bee, popular, cute, smart, ...? Oh yeah, Sean's girlfriend, serious one.

Sean Richard, jock, popular, smart, good looks for girls to die for, smirking personality... Taylor's boyfriend.

Muskaan Sharma , sweet, polite, smart, beautiful and... well... my ex girlfriend. Yeah, a serious one. Around 2 years ago, but c'mon, I was 16 then... There was even a time I thought I'd been in love with her. Muskaan had been pretty upset by the way our relationship had ended. She really wanted us to get back.

But once I'm over, that means that I _am_ over.

"Hey, Josh's here!" shouted Sean.

And there he came, Josh Michael. In his, Mini Cooper.

 _Great_

Josh came in and tried to imitate our style.

 _'Hook off man, you know can't do this_ ,' we all were thinking. But, Stubborn, little Michael wasn't hooking off, not now, at least.

He came near us and said "So, what do I have to do?"

"Take off your shirt, man," said Abhijeet.

"What?!"

"That I just said," smirked Abhijeet.

Josh seemed unsure, but removed it anyway. Showing off his non-existing muscles.

"Now, you gotta jump off from that point," said Sean, pointing towards a base struck with a ladder, around 20-25 feet high.

"Umm, okay." he said.

"Don't worry man," I patted his back, "I'm gonna jump off with you,"

At the thought of company, he seemed excited "Really? Thank you Daya!"

And we were standing at the base, exactly 23½ feet above the ground.

The countdown began. All the guys shouted "3! 2! 1!"

"GO!"

And the foolish teemager jumped into the ice cold water. _Poor boy_.

He thought I'd be coming with him.

"Aaaaaaahhhhh!" he screamed and vanished into the waters.

I waited for around a minute to see if he comes back.

He didn't.

"Hey, are you sure he's okay?" I shouted down to Sean.

"Yeah..." he said in between laughs. "He must be alright,"

"I don't think," I shouted back "He's in the water for the last few minutes, I think we should check. I don't wanna get involved in any police matter!"

"Sean," said Abhijeet "Daya's right, Josh's been in the water for a pretty long time,"

Sean seemed to be understanding and then said "Jump Daya! See if you can find 'im! We'll meet you on the other side!"

"'Kay!" I said and jumped.

Man, this water is really cold. No doubt Josh couldn't handle it.

I swam into the water and looked for Josh. He wasn't there. I came to the surface and saw that the others were standing nearby. I took a deep breath and went inside again. After doing this for a few more times, I finally found him and brought him to the surface. He was unconscious but breathing.

Abhijeet tried to wake him up by thumping on his chest hard. Bit he didn't wake up. He was lying there.

All of us were worried sick. What if something happened to him? We'd be expelled. This was supposed to be a prank, nothing else.

"BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!"

"Damn it!" I said.

"It's the police!" said Taylor.

"Let's go!" said Sean and ran away to his car with Taylor.

"Let's go Daya!" said Abhijeet. I nodded and came out of the water. The cool breeze hit me hard. I shivered.

"Are you okay?" Muskaan asked with concern.

"Yeah, now let's go!" I said and ran towards my car.

Muskaan and Abhijeet went into their car and drove off.

I couldn't. My didn't start.

"Damn you Mercedes!" I cursed.

The beep beep became louder and louder.

"Daya!" shouted Abhijeet from the front. "Come fast!"

"This piece of crap ain't startin'!" I shouted.

And then, finally, it did. But it was too late. Still I managed to get out of the parking lot. I brought my speed up to 75.

 _Off limits_

"Slow down you car, Mister!" shouted the policeman on the microphone.

I continued to make my way through the dark streets. Driving fast.

"Stop! Stop of you don't wanna go to jail!"

I looked behind too see how far they were from me and darn!

I crash into a farmhouse kind of thing. Almost 20 stacks of hay fell onto my car. I tried applying the brakes, but my brakes failed!

Damn!

"Ahh!" I swear I could hear the bones of my leg brake.

"That's all for today, Mister." the policeman came in with his flashlight. "Get ready for juvenile,"

I shook my head and handed the keys of my car to him.

"Hey Ross!" shouted the policeman "This like another young guy!"

This is hell...

 **So, how was it? Hope you liked it. Will update the next chapter as soon as I can.**

 **Do review!**

 **Till next time... Take care!**

 **Signing off...**

 **Blair :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi friends! I'm back with chapter 2!**

 **Hope you enjoy it and thanks for the reviews!**

 **NO PROMISES**

 **Chapter 2**

 **Daya's POV**

"Are you even listening to me, young man?" Officer Webber shouted.

"Yeah?" I said, scratching my head.

"Did you not listen to a word I said?!"

"Um... no, actually, I was in a little pain," I said pointing towards my fractured leg.

Oh yeah, I broke my left leg. Our dearest officer Webber took my to the town's hospital. Mom was called. I hate to let her down, but...

"Good for you Josh didn't die. Or you would've been in jail. Now, kiddo, you gotta do some community service,"

"No jail?"

"You heard me right," smirked Webber "No juvie, for ya. You doin' community service, "

"God!" I said. "Thank God!"

"Yeah, pray to the goddesses as well, cuz no one's gonna save ya," he said, lighting a cigarette.

"What do you mean? What do I have to do?" I asked, wanting to go home A-SAP.

"You dear principal will tell ya," he said.

"What!? Peterson!? Out of all people!? I thought this was gonna end here!"

"Nah nah kiddo!" he said. "You gotta get over with this soon, or you're always welcome to the jail, now get lost!"

Taking my cue, I went outside to meet my mom. She had a hard expression on her face.

"Hi mom, " I tried to say.

She shook her head and gave me the _'you're so dead'_ look.

Wish me luck...

 **I-I-I-I-I**

"I think I should call your dad," after a huge lecture of around 2 hours, mom came to this. My mom, Sunita Jain, aka the superwoman. She's the one who raised me alone after my stupid dad left us. She does two jobs. Monday to Friday she works at a local hardware store. As a manager. Which earns enough. Saturday and Sunday, she works for a company, writing their blogs, stay at home job. We have a nice, cozy house, a fireplace, two bedrooms, a kitchen.

"No mama," I simply said. "Anything but dad. I'm not talking to him and I've got no plans to do so in the future, "

She sighed "Look, Daya, this is not getting anywhere. I need to talk to your father. You both can't stay like for your whole life,"

My dad, Mr Vijay Shetty a doctor in a nearby hospital. He's a cancer specialist. He earns a good amount, lives in a fancy house with his occasional girlfriends.

"Mom, please, I already gotta do community service, Peterson's gonna tell me today,"

She shook her head, clearly not happy with my desicion.

 **I-I-I-I-I**

"The police also found out that you were drinking on the school grounds," said _Principal_ Peterson.

"So," I said, I really don't care "What are you gonna do? Expel me?"

"No," he said "Not yet."

"Then what?"

"You're gonna have to do three things," he said, sitting on the chair "Apart from attending your regular classes, you're gonna have to help our janitor staff, on Saturdays, you'll tutor underprivileged children at our sister school, West Wood High, and lastly, you will participate in the drama club, final play."

"The Winter play?" I asked. The Winter play, or the Christmas play, as it was usually called was a story of a guy named Noah Wills. It was play written by Kavin Malhotra, the priest at a nearby church. Oh, and by the way, I even played a prank on him once. I swapped his religious books with some dirty ones, with dirty covers and believe me, it was hilarious to see in face during the ceremony. He was so embarrassed that he didn't come to the church for the next 2 weeks! And since then, he'd had this thing against me He never called me Daya, always Mr Shetty.

So, according to this play this guy, Noah is a widower who has a daughter, who wants a beautiful music box for Christmas on which an angel is inscribed. So, it's Christmas eve and he's looking for that music box, but can't find it. He comes across a beautiful woman who promises to help him find the gift for his daughter.

While they are looking for the music box, they come across a homeless person and they help him. Then they go to an orphanage and spend some time with the poor kids there then they visit an old lady who just wants some company for Christmas.

And while again, when they are still looking for the gift the mysterious beautiful woman ask Noah what he wants for Christmas. He says that he wants his wife back. The woman brings him to a fountain which he has never seen before. She asks him to look into it and that he'll find what he wants. When Noah looks, he sees the face of his little girl. He breaks down and sobs, and during this time the woman runs off. He searches for the woman, but in vain. He goes home, and looks at his daughter sleeping. And realizes that she's all he has of his wife. And the next morning, the musical box magically appears under the small Christmas tree set up Noah.

The play wasn't bad actually, to be frank, people cried buckets and it was pretty sure that Kavin was portraying his uncle's, Suraj's, story through this.

The play was nice... but, me and this play...? I wasn't so sure.

"You heard it right," smiled Peterson "Now Daya, it's time for you to begin again. Time for you to leave that group of stupid people. It's time for you to start spending time with other kinds of people."

I gave him a careless look.

"Don't blow it, Daya."

 **I-I-I-I-I**

"So, how did you escape Webber?" asked Abhijeet. We were sitting on a bench in the school's playground. I just got out of Peterson's cabin and told them about my so called punishments.

"Yeah, I still can't believe you're not in jail." Said Muskaan.

"Webber told me that cuz Josh's not dead, no jail for me," I said, holding my crutches. Yeah, got crutches too.

"Yeah, I heard," said Taylor, applying her make up "Heard he ended up in hospital, "

"Oh see, who's comin'!" exclaimed Sean. "The great Shreya Malhotra,"

And there she was. Shreya Malhotra. The local priest's (Kavin Malhotra) sister. She was a senior, like the rest of us. Again, she wore that same dress, she'd worn since first grade. A loose white blouse and her one and only dark green sweater. A printed white-brown plaid skirt, ending at her ankles. All these years I'd only seen her wearing these clothes, just the size had increased.

Now, don't get me wrong. Shreya was a nice girl. Yeah, totally nice. The adults in the town adored her like anything. People would say when her name came up—'Oh, she's such a nice young lady,' or 'I've never seen such a kind girl like her,' or sometimes, 'The world would be such a beautiful place if there were more people like her,'.

 _Screw_ the world, and _screw_ the people.

Now for Kavin, he was around 29, I guess? He was just like Shreya. You know, like father, like son. But this was, like brother, like sister. They were not like born from the same parents. Shreya's father, Mr Suraj Malhotra, also a priest, had died five years ago in a car accident. Her mother had died during childbirth. So, Kavin was Suraj's deceased brother's son and had been adopted by Suraj when his brother died, around 14 years ago. After the accident, Kavin had been that super protective big brother. Not like she needed one, knowing the fact that she didn't get into any trouble like the rest of us, ever. But, for some strange reason he'd been his overly protective self since the last two years, he was before that too, but since the last two years, it's been like, well... You get the picture. For example, he'd been there to drop her off at school, and to pick her up as well. Always, just like a guardian.

Beaufort is a small town, so there was just one public school and I can say we all have been together since kindergarten. I'd be lying if I said that I had never talked to Shreya, because I had. Around three years ago, we'd been seated next to each other, and to be frank, we'd talked. But it's not like I wanted to hang out with her.

Now, I'm not saying that she wasn't attractive. She was, actually. She was thin, fair, almost my height, maybe an inch or two shorter. But she was that kind of girl who usually believed in 'inner beauty'. And so, she didn't wear any make up. She had dark black hair which she always wore in a pony tail. She was nice, but not my type.

She always carried a Bible with her, and according to her, everything was the Lord's plan. She'd mention it no matter what the subject be. A surprise test in class? Must be the Lord's plan. Raining on the first day of football camp? Must be the Lord's plan to prevent something terrible.

She was the kind of girl who made all of us look bad. Bad, in the sense that whenever she passed, I'd feel guilty for no reason whatsoever. And when I was young, people who saw me used to whisper in their kid's ears "Don't ever be like Daya, he's on his way to jail,"

 _Oh yeah_

"Nice sweater," said Nick, looking at her.

Shreya stopped midway. Looking at all of us, while we were trying to suppress our laughter, she said "Thank you," smiled and went away.

As soon as she was out of sight, we all started giggling.

"Thank you," Abhijeet imitated her and laughed again.

I chuckled.

The day passed on pretty quickly. Nothing new, all old hat. And when the final bell rang, I was pretty happy about it until the realization struck me that I was supposed to stay after school and help the janitors.

Screw the world, man.

It wasn't until half an hour of me cleaning the floors with a mop, listening to 'Hold on', my only escape that I noticed that Shreya was also there.

No, not cleaning the floors, of course, stacking some stupid encyclopedias alphabetically and checking on her _starry_ list. Starry list— what star will be visible on what day at what time. Oh, another thing, she also had this thing for stars. I even heard she had a backyard telescope, but then again, like I said, she wasn't my type.

Suddenly, Nick, Abhi and Sean entered the room. They found me and Sean said "What the heck man," and laughed "You, you-cleaning floors, now?"

"Come on, let's go," said Nick.

"Can't," I said "Got stuck, "

"We just checked Peterson's room, he ain't here, man, let's make a move," said Abhi, and then, taking one of my crutches, walked away.

And so did Sean and Nick.

I stole a glance at Shreya before making my move. She was pretty upset by the fact that I wasn't giving my whole to this thing. But, did I care?

Nah.

But I wish I had.

 **I-I-I-I-I**

 **So,... how was it? Hope you enjoyed reading!**

 **Do review and follow and favourite!**

 **Love you guys!**

 **Signing off...**

 **Yours...**

 **Blair :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hi guys! I'm back! Thanks for your reviews! I loved them. Hope you like this chapter as well.**

 **NO PROMISES**

 **Chapter 3**

 **Daya's POV**

After bunking my so called punishment, I dropped off Muskaan. Yeah, I don't know why in the first place I agreed to drop her off. I was just hoping that she wouldn't bring up any topic of our past relationship.

It was going pretty well until we reached her house. And, she invited me in, in hope of patching things again.

"It's over," I had to say again.

Oh, Lord, save me.

It was a Friday. So I thought I would be able to watch late night movies. I did. And slept at 3.

But only to be woken by mom at 6 and I remembered about my...

Tutoring.

And so, here I am, tutoring a disadvantaged child, his name was Sam, I think.

And I was to teach him English. Thank God, it was English. You see, English is my favourite subject, I've never pulled anything lower than B, that was also because I had fever. But, I had been pretty good at grammar, specially. And I think Peterson must've checked it and after that only handed me this subject. If it had been Math, I would've died. You see, Math was my Achilles's heel. Yeah. I have a particular dislike towards those questions in whcih there are two trains running in opposite directions, at 50 miles per hour. . . and blah. . . blah. . .

So, because of this, I was also the president of the Junior English Club. Note the name, Junior. Yeah, junior. We have clubs for all subjects and a senior has to preside over it. And to tell you the truth, I had to win. No matter what, because there was no one for my competition! I was the sole candidate!

And I had no interest in this, as I'd rather be in the janitor's cleaning staff because the club does such childish things that I have to puke, like discussing the writing style of Shakespeare, now I don't have any issues with Mr. S, but. . . c'mon! I don't wanna spend my time discussing Shakespeare with a bunch of kids!

And. . . all the credit goes to my dad, who thinks that I should be doing something in school rather than just loitering around. As I'm allergic to studies, don't play any sports, so he thought that I should just be the president of the junior English Club.

Yeah, dumb. And dumber.

And of course, Shreya was there as well. She never lets a chance to help people go to waste.

So, as I was teaching Sam tenses, without any progress...

"So, did you get it?" I asked him.

"Man!" he cursed "I think this is useless!" and banged his hand on the table.

Great

Momentarily, Shreya looked at me with an angry expression, but soon calmed down. I guess she understood my situation.

 **I-I-I-I-I**

I was listening to 'Hold On', in the bus and felt the seat next to me deepen and heard "Hi!"

It was Shreya. Yeah, with her book.

I didn't say anything so she continued "So, do you wanna give some money? We're planning to buy some new books for West Wood High,"

Again, I didn't reply, did need to?

"That would be a no," she said.

Thank God, the conversation ended. Now go away, Malhotra.

"I saw you with Sam," she said "I know it can be a little difficult sometimes, but, maybe you should try explaining him the topic from the base,"

Again, I didn't reply.

"So, did you visit Josh? I heard he's been shifted to his home from the hospital." she asked.

God, get over with this.

I removed my headphones and looked towards her and said "Just get over with it, Shreya. Go read your precious book!"

She liked over to her Bible and muttered a few prayers then looked over to me again and said "Please don't pretend like you know me,"

"But I am," I said, and looked our of the window. "Lemme see.. we've been in the same school since kindergarten, why, you're Shreya Malhotra, you sit at lunch table six, which isn't exactly the reject table, but isn't the popular one as well, or normal. You have exactly one sweater. Oh, and on Saturdays, you go to West Wood High and hang out with these cool kids there as well as you like to hang out with stars and planets. So, how's that sound?"

"Fairly predictable, I've never heard _that_ before," she smiled.

"Why, you don't care what people think about you?" I asked.

"No," she simply replied with a smile and then went back to her seat.

Can this day get any worse?

Oh yeah, of course. The Christmas play rehearsal.

But oh, how much I love rain. I love it, because our rehearsals got cancelled because of the rain. Trust me, it was raining pretty heavily, and almost all the roads for blocked. So, no rehearsals.

But, worse. Because there are no rehearsals today, our teacher, Miss Elsa Summerwood has asked the 'Playhouse' to be open on Sunday so that we could practice.

I just wanna go home and rest for the late evening and probably pick on a few drinks. I called over Abhi, actually he lives just a few blocks away from mine so it wasn't a big problem for him to come to mine despite the heavy rain.

And that is how I spent my Saturday.

Next day was okay. Well, not only because we (the children from the play) did not do anything except for idling around but also because Miss Elsa said that there will no more practices for the week because of the annual prom.

The Annual Prom aka the the time of the that year that I dread. 2 years ago, I would've easily taken Muskaan. But, things are awkward between us now. And I know, that she has to go to a family function during that week.

Abhijeet said that asked Linda Hemingway and she accepted to be his date. Well, Linda isn't in our group but she's fine. I mean, like she's our friend, just not in our group.

Sean's going with Taylor and I'm sure Nick's gonna find a chick for the night, after all he's in the swim team.

That leaves me.

I think everybody in school is gonna have a date, and I don't wanna show up without a date, Sean's gonna make a hell of my rest of my senior year.

I think I can take a girl who's not in school anymore. But then again, they must've gone to far away places.

"I'd be happy to be your date if can't find one," my mom said.

"Yeah," I said sarcastically "Thanks mom,"

Even my own mom didn't think that I could find a date.

Frustrated, I took out my yearbook in hope of a new light is my super dark cloud. I searched and searched in all vain. Most of them already had dates, while others were not in school anymore.

It was a tradition in East Wood High to write your ambitions in the yearbook beneath you photo.

I looked onto my picture.

Name: Daya Shetty

Ambition: Get into a medical school

I smiled.

Then I looked at some other girls. Dakota Leather, obviously going with Jason Greene. Clear Rivers, with Eric Stu. No luck for me, until I saw that name.

Name: Shreya Malhotra

Ambition: To witness a miracle

Ambition, to witness a miracle? What kind of ambition is that!? Did she wanna see the Halley's Comet after 62 years rather than 76?

Anyways, Shreya Malhotra, she wasn't bad though. No! What was I thinking!? I'd rather go alone than go with her.

But then, Sean...? And the whole school is still waiting behind his back to pick on me.

And besides, Shreya probably didn't have a date as well. She didn't even have a boyfriend. Poor Kavin would die if she had one. But then again, she'd even bring her neighbour's dog as her date if her neighbours told her to. But, she wasn't that type of girl who'd have a boyfriend. She didn't even have any friends, I guess. Except for some little children at an orphanage she went to. And some of the children from West Wood High.

And then I remembered. Robinson Matthew. Now this is the heck of a guy. This might sound like the name of a jock, a person like badass, bad boy. Trust me, he isn't. He's short, and by short I mean, really short. Like short as in the height of kids in first or second grade. He wears the nerdy glasses and has pimples all around his face. And, he's a senior as well, so it means he's gonna go to the prom too.

And then I remembered, that he also might be looking at the yearbook like me, and... thinking about Shreya. What if he asked her? Like I said, she would probably go with her neighbour's dog if they wanted her too, she would hear Robinson's _pitiful_ story and agree to go with her.

And he has this thing like if he got something which the other person didn't, which rarely happened, he would ask uncountable questions about it and that too so many times, you'll forget what's your name.

If, he got Shreya to the dance and saw me without a date, he would pour questions on me like a glass of lemonade. Like, 'Hey, Daya, poor thing you couldn't find a date for yourself... ' or 'Hey Daya, mind telling me why you couldn't find a date?'.

But, Shreya Malhotra...? Not so bad, after all.

So, I considered this option. Though it wasn't the best, it was way better than going with mom or being teased by Sean or God forbid... Robinson Matthew.

So, I decided.

I will ask Shreya to the dance.

Not like I had another option.

 **So...? What'd you think?**

 **Thank you for your reviews!**

 **And do tell me how this one went!**

 **Signing off**

 **Yours**

 **Blair :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello friends! How are you?**

 **This chapter is a bit small. . . I'm sorry. But I promise the next one will be big!**

 **And I've mentioned a self made college cuz I couldn't think of anything else... hope that's okay.. :)**

 **So... I hope you enjoy! and do Comment!**

 **NO PROMISES**

 **Chapter 4**

 **Daya's POV**

The next day at school, I eyed Shreya Malhotra like a hawk. Seeing where she went, what she did, and all that stuff. And I waited to find a moment when she was alone so that I could ask her.

I don't think I'd ever concentrated on anything this hard. Not even on my college applications. Dad wanted me to go to Stanford, Harvard, MIT or something. But with my kinds of grades I wasn't possible. So, I decided for the NYC. NewYork City College. Yes, it was my chance, I remember thinking. It was just opened so there weren't many people joining that college and the bonus, it was specially for children pursuing meds. So I wasn't really done with the application. . . to be frank I was scared of the section: Strengths. I had no Strengths at all, excpet for English. . . or maybe I could walk on stairs with 8 books on my head. . . but I think the last one didn't count.

So, back to the Shreya story. She was free all day, she didn't have much friends to begin with, and always read her Bible during lunch and heck! Anytime she could find free. Now, I knew the Bible like a guy next door, like I know what all happens in it, Noah and the Mosses and all, but I didn't spend all my free in reading it.

And I swear I received a few cold glances from Robinson Matthew. So, he was also gonna ask Shreya to the dance, but here my reputation, and my senior year were at risk, and I wasn't gonna let it go.

So, Asking Shreya. I figured out that maybe I could do that after school ended, knowing the face she was on a half day. Don't know why...

So as soon as the bell of the last period rang,I sprinted across the school grounds, without seeing off my friends, I ran across all the houses. Yeah, I didn't bring my car. I wasn't allowed to... I only did when mom allowed or when she was sleeping and I could sneak out.

So, like I was saying, I sprinted across everything and anything. Like I said, I wasn't a good athlete, but I guess after this, I probably could win the Olympics. There were just two things in my mind, Dance and Shreya and oh! Robinson Matthew as well.

I don't know how long I ran. But after seeing myself soaked in sweat in November, I sensed it must've been pretty intense. But, today wasn't much cold. Almost like a summer day in June. Well, I guess that's how weather is in Beaufort. Changes like the hands of a clock.

I saw her house. I couldn't see Kavin's car and this was a bonus point for me because the lights in the house were on, and this meant that someone was at home, and as far as I knew, Shreya didn't know how to drive a car. So, she had to be in the house.

As I approached nearer to the door, I imagined Robinson Matthew to open the door and give me his pitiful look which said 'I'm sorry bro, you're late,'.

So, I knocked the door twice, and to my delight, Shreya opened the door. She smiled seeing me and said 'Hi, Daya, what a lovely surprise!'

Yeah, though I didn't talk to her, she was, like I said, super kind and super nice, and always greeted everyone with a cheerful hello. I swear, this girl never said a bad thing about anybody. She was always cheerful and happy and... well, you get the picture.

I straightened up a little and gave her a small smile and said "Can I talk to you?"

She smiled at me again and said "Yeah, sure. But, since Kavin isn't at home and he doesn't allow boys in the house in his absence, would you mind sitting in the garden? "

"Sure," I said.

"Would you like to have a glass of water? You seem like you've been exercising a lot,"

I looked at myself and said "Yeah. . . Sure. . ."

"Okay, make yourself at home and I'll be back," she said and disappeared into her house.

I sat on one of the wooden chairs and looked around. Her was not bad, though it was nothing compared to my fancy house, it was pretty good indeed, especially considering the fact that the Malhotras weren't quite well off financially. Ministering doesn't pay you so much.

Soon enough Shreya appeared from behind with a glass of water and handed it over to me. I mumbled a small thanks and drank it up.

I was still thinking how I should start the conversation and I decided to take the face that she took a half day into use.

"So, you were on half day today?" I asked.

She looked down to the ground without any expression and then looked up and said "Yeah. . ."

I nodded, sensing the fact that didn't want to talk about it and then said "Well, it's a bit sunny today isn't it?"

She smiled again and said "Yes. . . It pretty much is. But, the weatherman said that it's going to be pretty windy by next Monday,"

I nodded and said "You know. . . I like the sunny days more than anything, I mean, you can go out wherever you want. . . and-"

"Daya," she sighed "Yore not here to talk about the weather, are you?"

I shut my mouth instantly, then said "No. . ." I hunched a little and then said "Who's you're date to the prom?"

Stupid, I thought, I know nobody's asked her.

"I. . ." she trailed off "wasn't planning to go. . ."

"But if someone asked you, would you, though?"

"I don't know. . . " she said "I guess I'll have to ask Kavin first,"

"Oh. . ." I said "So, would you go to the dance with me?"

I was praying that she would say yes. Her one yes would mean a lot to me specially considering the situation in which I currently am.

She studied me for a while, looked towards the road and then again towards me and then said "Okay, but one condition. . ."

"What?" I asked, hoping the condition was not something I wouldn't be able to do.

Her lips twitched a smile, she looked at me and said with a small chuckle,

"You have to promise that you won't fall in love with me,"

 **Cliffhanger! Well, sort of!**

 **So, whatcha think bout it? Tell me in to comments!**

 **Love you all!**

 **Signing off. ...**

 **Yours...**

 **Blair :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hi fellas! How ya doin'?**

 **I know I know I'm late!**

 **Thank you for your reviews! And let's get ready for the next chapter...**

 **Hope you enjoy!**

 **NO PROMISES**

 **Chapter 5**

 **Daya's POV**

I laughed at her joke. A promise to not to fall in love? What was she thinking, that I was asking her because I liked her?

But then when I saw her serious face, I knew she wasn't joking. So, I faked a cough and then said "T. . . That's not a p. . . problem," And I gave her my word.

She smiled again and said "It's good for me then,"

 **I-I-I-I-I**

I was pretty happy by the fact that neither Sean or Abhi or for that matter, Nick hadn't fussed about my whole 'taking Shreya to the dance situation'. To be frank, Abhi had even asked me to a double date as in he and Linda and me and Shreya. But I refused, not because I didn't want to or something but becuase I figured out that he might be rude or something or say something bad to her, unintentionally, of course, because he himself didn't know what he was saying sometimes, especially when he had a few shots of bourbon into him.

But even though, I was quite worried by the fact what she would wear. I didn't want her to come in her ugly green sweater and that plaid skirt. You see, it was the annual prom for the seniors, and kids were pretty excited about it. Girls bought new dresses and guys wore suits and ties.

But I knew that she wouldn't buy any new dress considering the fact that she wasn't well off financially. But I was hoping that she won't wear that.

And then there was the fact if she could dance or not. I hadn't seen her in any of the dances of the school, though I wasn't there myself. But. . . beofre that I had another problem to solve.

It was only 7. The dance started at 8. But Shreya had told me that Kavin wanted to talk to me about something and that I should come early. I have to admit I wasn't looking forward to this conversation like I said that I had played a prank on him once and I was worried that he might. . . well, I was scared.

Her house wasn't far away as I was going by the car, mom let me borrow. So I started off at around 7:15 and reached around 7:30.

I knocked on the door and Kavin answered the door with "Come in, Mr Shetty,"

I looked at him. He wasn't so old like I'd heard. 29, by my knowledge. He looked. . . _normal_.

I followed him inside the house. Their house was. . . well, fine I guess, like I said, they weren't well off financially, it was good. I could see a small fireplace nearby, a couch, a pendulum clock, photographs of Shreya, Kavin, their parents, Shreya's mom's as well.

"Sit down," he said, as he sat down on the couch.

I sat down on a chair and tried to keep my back straight. But he was way more taller than me.

"I'm sorry I called you early," he said, finally after studying me for sometime.

"It's okay, sir," I don't know why I called him 'sir', I guess he sort of projected this image.

"I wanted to talk to you about something,"

"Yes, sir," I said.

"So. . ." he said, folding his arms. "Tell me about yourself,"

"Umm. . ." Wow, I hadn't expected this at all. At all. I thought he knew about me, since I had swapped those magazines, I thought he had kept am eye on me and even told Shreya about me. But as Shreya was being nice to me, I highly doubted that. But, then, it was _the_ Shreya Malhotra.

"I am pretty good at English. . . And I am the president of the Junior English Club," I shifted in my seat "Umm. . . I, well sir I am planning to go to the New York City College after high school,". I also wanted to pick up 8 books from the rack and keep them on my head and walk up the stairs. But I guess he wouldn't be pleased by it. I was running out of facts about myself.

Like I said I wasn't looking forward to this conversation, now I know why.

Then, to my relief, he asked "Why did you ask my sister to the dance? "

I wasn't prepared for this. Not at all. "Sir, I don't know what you mean,"

"I mean. . . you're not planning to embarrass. . . her, are you?"

"No!" I said, suddenly shocked "No! I would never do that to her!" Why did he think so?

The magazines, duh.

To my relief, Shreya came down the stairs and cut our conversation with "You're not giving Daya a hard time, are you?"

She was wearing a white blouse with black stripes and a red skirt which ended below her knees. Her hair was again in a tight pony tail. Honestly, I wanted her to keep it down, but that was the last thing I would say.

She looked nice, though, she could do better. _Way_ better. Again no make up but the plus point, she wasn't carrying her Bible, thank God. Oh, how ironic.

"We should better get going," I said, before Kavin could reply.

"Okay," she smiled as I stood up.

She kissed Kavin on his forehead and said "Don't work on the sermons too late, alright?"

"Will not," Kavin smiled back.

Truth to be told it was first time since the time I had arrived that I saw Kavin smiling and this proves how much he loves Shreya and isn't afraid to show it.

Once outside, I breathed a sigh of relief as we started towards my car. I handed her a corsage and thought that I would tell her how to pin it once she was inside the car.

But to my surprise, by the time I seated myself in the car, Shreya had already pinned it, and I have to say I was surprised. I'd never imagined her knowing how to pin it.

As if reading my thoughts, she said "I'm not that dumb, silly. I know how to pin a corsage."

I love surprises.

"Why am I not surprised? " I said, staring the engine.

We had only driven for like 10 minutes when Shreya told me to stop the car. Apparently, she saw two guys fighting and wanted to stop them from doing so. I forbid her from doing so because if she got injured then I better be ready to receive the beatings of Black Belt Kavin. Did I tell you before becoming a Reverend, Kavin was a black belt in karate? No? Well, I am, now.

But she won't listen to me, and just went out and I decided to follow her. Because I know how dangerous it can be.

You know, in third grade I got into a fight. And damn God, that guy was so huge, I think his name was Lewis or Larry, and he was like just so strong! He punched me like hell and I guess it had something to do with his lunch but I don't remember much. All I remember is, my dad, being _the_ one and only great doctor in town complained. Did I tell you we're pretty rich? Nd that no one could go against us? No? Well, it's the truth.

So, next Lewis was suspended from school for almost killing a darn innocent boy like me. I haven't heard from him since but once Abhi told me that he went to New Orleans and there, he became a newspaper editor.

So, back to the story, those two guys looked like aged 25-30, maybe older. One of the guys was blonde and was wearing a black shirt and denims. While the other one was a brunette and was wearing almost torn out clothes. He was also wearing a brown hoodie.

And little miss Shreya went up to them.

"Stop!" she almost shouted, honestly, it was the first time in my entire life that I'd seen her raise her voice, that too not much.

"Leave us alone Shreya," said the one wearing the brown hoodie, softly. You know, like I said, Beaufort is a small town, so all the people know each other. . . these guys being no exception. And all the people in town adored Shreya so it was normal for the guy to talk softly with her. "Let us settle this by ourselves. . ."

"Who are you?!" said the other one. Guess not such a small town anymore.

"It's Shreya," said the first guy. Then he turned to Shreya with "Shreya go home. . . we'll settle this by ourselves. "

"George, who is he?" asked Shreya, pointing towards the other guy.

"It's my friend, Dean, he's come from Philly,"

It definitely is a small town.

"Friend?!" said Dean. "You call me your friend huh?!" and punched George.

"Stop!" Shreya said "Stop it! What are doing? Are you five year olds?"

"Hey listen," said Dean "Whoever you are, tell this guy to return me my three hundred dollars or else-"

"I told you, I will as soon as I can!" shouted George "I don't even have a penny in my house right now!"

"I don't care!" shouted Dean "I want my moeny!"

"Stop you both!" Said Shreya. "How much money, did you say, that George owes you?" she asked Dean.

Dean seemed startled by this but anyhow answered "Th. . . three hundred dollars. "

She took out her wallet from her pocket earning a shocked look from both Dean and George.

Then she took out some notes and started counting them and them smiled with "Here, Dean." she said handing out the money "I'm sorry George couldn't return the money on time. His father's sudden death caused his family severe financial ados."

"A. . . I. . ." Dean stammered, guess he was too shocked to say anything. Then, he looked towards George for help who was not-so-shocked, guess he was used to it.

Then, George came up to Shreya and said "But. . . Shreya, I can't. I won't be able to pay it back to you."

"There is no need to pay it back, George."

"But-"

"Just think of it as an advanced Christmas gift from me to you," she winked.

Dean didn't move at all during this and so did I.

"Umm. . ." Shreya said "Actually, I have to go to a dance, so I can't stay longer, " she said and quickly shoved the money into Dean's hands and walked towards the car.

Once we seated ourselves, and I put on the engine, I couldn't help saying "You did a good job,"

"Thank you," she smiled. "You know what I think of all this?"

"What?" I said, predicting her next words to be something like 'Lord's plan,'.

And then she said "Well, I think, this is all a part of Lord's plan? What do you think the message is?"

And here we go again. . .

Throughout the evening, my friends kept their distance. I did not even once saw Sean, Taylor, Nick, Abhi, or Linda, for that matter. (Found out that Nick managed to get some Seirra Alden to the dance.) And, like I said, Shreya didn't have any friends to begin with, so we were practically all by ourselves most of the time except for a few hi's and hello's here and there.

And it turned out that she could dance pretty well. She looked really happy while moving with the music. And now here we are, sitting on some chairs while the others are making their way to get some punch. Shreya and punch, like oil and water. . . and with her here, I can't cuz if I do, she's gonna tell Kavin and then you're the judge.

So, right now, we're sitting here, while Shreya is describing the wonders of a backyard telescope and how far can it look while I'm not giving a damn about it.

And then I see him.

Lewis. . . or Larry. . . or whatever his name was.

And the worst part, he was advancing towards me.

 _Oh. My. Gosh_.

 **So?..! How was it?**

 **Do lemme know in the comments section. . .**

 **And a big thank-you to all those who reviewed! Love ya! (:**

 **Thank you!**

 **So...**

 **Take care 'til next time. . .**

 **Signing off...**

 **yours...**

 **Blair...:)**


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